Moiynkum Desert: what to know before going to Kazakhstan's southern sands

The Moiynkum Desert is a sand desert in southern Kazakhstan, spread across the Zhambyl and Turkistan regions, about 117 km in a straight line from Taraz and about 410 km from Almaty. It is a working landscape of winter pastures, a large nature reserve and uranium mines, not a packaged attraction. Go for empty sand ridges and steppe wildlife in spring or early autumn, and plan the logistics yourself.

Where the Moiynkum Desert is and how big it is

Moiynkum lies between the Chu River valley to the north and east and the Karatau and Kyrgyz Ala-Too ranges to the south. It runs about 500 km from south-east to north-west and covers 37,500 km², by Russian and Kazakh Wikipedia. Of the cities we list, Taraz is the closest; Shymkent is about 253 km and Turkistan about 299 km away, all straight-line distances.

For a traveller this means distance, not terrain, is the first obstacle. Almaty is a long way off, so Moiynkum fits better into a southern itinerary built around Taraz, Shymkent or Turkistan.

What the landscape looks like: vegetated ridges, not bare dunes

Most of Moiynkum is overgrown or half-overgrown sand, deeply cut into ridges, rather than shifting bare barkhans. Saxaul and milkvetch grow on the slopes; zhuzgun (calligonum), mugwort and sedge fill the hollows. The east breaks into separate ridges 10–25 m high and 1–2 km long, while the centre rises into ridges of 50–70 m.

Water sits close to the surface in the hollows between ridges and often comes out as small lakes. Hydrogeologists confirmed fresh water here in 1975, and drilling found a large artesian basin 400–500 m below the dunes. Named lakes include Kokuydynkol and Zhalanash near the Chu, the Akzhar lake group in the south, and the salt lake Akzhaykyn in the Ashchykol Depression at the western end, which the Chu reaches only in wet years.

Wildlife and the Andasay reserve

Moiynkum is home to saiga, goitered gazelle, roe deer, wild boar, wolves, foxes, hares, ground squirrels, jerboas and pheasants, according to Wikipedia. The Andasay State Nature Reserve, established in 1966, is a protected area of about 1,000,000 hectares, according to English Wikipedia. There is also the Umbet state hunting area.

We could not confirm whether visitors may enter Andasay, where its boundaries run or whether a permit is needed. Check this before planning any wildlife trip into the reserve.

A desert people live and work in

Today the desert is used mainly as winter pasture for livestock, with better-watered spots cut for hay. In the 1930s–1950s many residents were exiles who worked on collective farms and on rice fields laid out by Koreans deported from the Far East.

The desert also holds uranium deposits. English Wikipedia lists the South Inkai mine, the Inkai project and the Tortkuduk and Moiynkum mines. Expect industrial sites and their access roads in parts of the desert, and do not assume you can drive into them.

When to go to Moiynkum

Late April, May and September are the comfortable windows; midsummer is hot and winter is cold with freezing nights. The figures below are computed 2011–2020 normals from the ERA5 reanalysis for a grid point at 421 m, not a weather station, so treat them as a guide. The south-east of the desert rises to 700 m and will be somewhat cooler.

In July average highs reach about 35.0 °C and nights stay near 21 °C, with almost no rain from June to September. Sources disagree on extremes: English Wikipedia gives around 50 °C in July and −40 °C in January, Kazakh Wikipedia gives lows of −40 to −44 °C. Winter highs hover near 1 °C, snow is thin (10–15 cm at most) and November and March are the wettest months.

If you can only come in summer, plan to be among the ridges early in the morning and carry far more water than you think you need: there is almost no rain and the heat builds through the day.

What makes a trip hard without a car

We could not confirm any public transport into the desert, any marked trails or any visitor facilities. The desert is huge, roads are not described in any source we hold, and the main land uses are pasture, a reserve and mining. A visitor without a car should treat Moiynkum as a trip that needs transport arranged in advance, most practically from Taraz.

If you are touring the south, other southern sites include Turkistan and the ancient city of Otrar. For petroglyphs, see Tamgaly.